Artists have continued to toy with the Infinite Canvas engine from Microsoft’s Live Labs since we last checked in. In the current “featured”category is “Amhot” by Tam, a cool set of Vignettes worth checking out.

Also of interest, below the fold, is a long list of other recent comics, art projects, and random screwing around which use the engine.

As before, the comics themselves are a mixed bag, using a smattering of navigational models, some of which work better than others, but they point in interesting directions.

I’ll be curious to see what surprises might emerge from the slushpile in the future.

New Tom Hart comic! Everything is right with the world.

[Thanks to Heidi for the heads-up]

…is a bit scary sometimes.

While reading the latest “hey-they’re-making-comics-on-the-web-apparently” article (found via DD) I stumbled on yet another interesting comic that’s been running for a while, but which I stupidly missed: Kinokofry by Rebecca Clements. Weird but pretty. Check it out.

The Serendipity of the Web was a selling point in the mid ’90s when most of us starting hopping on. Now, I have a nagging anxiety that for every cool comic I stumble upon, there are another 1,000 I would have liked but will never see.

I love working on the graphic novel, but it’s meant less surfing and less involvement in the webcomics scene. Hoping to jump back in more after the last page is drawn in a couple of years.

A pre-launch screencast on the much-anticipated Longbox (via Dirk).

It’s not on the sidebar, but I’m actually on muggy but beautiful Cape Cod at the moment (I left barely 24 hours after we landed in L.A. from Spain) doing a government thingey (unrelated to Obama’s visit, though I realized tonight that he’s reeeeely close to here), so blogging continues to be a bit irregular. Hope to return to regular updates Monday.

The Webcomic Overlook takes a look back at a 9-year-old list I wrote of 10 suggestions for beginning webcartoonists. Won’t quibble with the article’s conclusions (whether I agree or not, they’re reasonable points) but it’s a brief, funny look back at a very different time — literally the Web’s first decade (post-Mosaic).

[via Journalista]

In other news: OMG, even his bees are winning awards now.

Kane Lynch has a lot on his mind. His site features comics, videos, and photocomics, each section with its own oddball set of sensibilities. It’s hit-and-miss, but I liked several bits for different reasons which is always refreshing in a sea of mono-talents.

Of special interest to comics fans is his ongoing long-form comic The Relics. The figure drawing is pretty raw, but the story feels solid and well-planned, and you can see the art gradually improve as it runs to catch up. Given enough time, (and life drawing courses) you could see Lynch developing in a similar fashion to Jeph Jacques (compare: early JJ vs recent JJ).

Or he might just make music videos. The guy is obviously restless.

Either way, another one to keep an eye on.

Patrick Farley’s webcomics have been sorely missed in recent months due to his former domain, e-sheep.com, being hijacked by zombies.

Now he’s restored most of his terrific comics to the newly-minted domain electricsheepcomix.com and added a one-bit placeholder front page that had a lot of us old fogey’s shaking our 5.25 inch floppy bones laughing.

Despite the antique placeholder though, Farley remains one of the most forward-thinking artists in webcomics. Check out his archive if you’ve never seen it, and keep an eye out for new work in the coming months.

We’re heading down to Comic-Con early Wednesday morning, and frantically getting ready tomorrow, so blog updates will be spotty at best starting tomorrow. Here are a few distractions in the meantime:

Merlin has a new hypercomic up, The Four Derangements. Gorgeous, inventive stuff as always.

Johanna Draper Carlson offers some in-depth thoughts on our recent Zot! Collection.

The gang at the Human Creativity Project sent along an adorable gift for our family in the mail, possibly in response to our recent discussion of see-through comics. (Thanks, HCP people!)

Our family’s in-depth review of 500 Days of Summer: We liked it. It was good.

Larry Marder has his own convention schedule up. Gotta see Larry!

And of course, for those of you going to Comic-Con you can find me Thursday at Noon interviewing Bryan Lee O’Malley on stage, and otherwise relaxing with the family this year. (Yay! Off years = no pressure). If anything else does come up, I’ll try to post it here, or for more timely updates, you can follow me on Twitter.

Here’s a cool idea I haven’t seen before. Pat Race, one of our gracious hosts when we visited Juneau during the 50 state tour, has posted a “see-through” comic on his site.

As Pat explains it, you can download and print a 2-sided pdf, read the front page, then hold it up to the light so that the backside shows through and literally see the comic in “a new light.” There’s a flash version too, though the effect is a bit different.

It’s a nice trick, giving a new dimension to a charming, if melancholy, short subject.